It's mine, all mine...

Interesting court decision - which I fully expect to be appealed - that lottery winnings are "non-matrimonial property".  In other words they belong to the spouse who bought the ticket and not to the marriage.  So in the event of a divorce, the other spouse has no claim on them or any share of them.  If however the winning spouse uses any of the money to buy something for the two of them - in the case in question, a house - then that does become matrimonial property and is subject to division between them on any breakup.  The tricky question, which I am sure will go to appeal is whether the money which bought the ticket was matrimonial property - in which case it would seem the winnings must be.  In the case under discussion, the Judge appeared to accept that the ticket was bought by the one spouse out of their own income without the knowledge of the other spouse.  Problem is that it has always seemed to be a general principle of modern matrimonial law that each spouse's income belongs to them both.  So watch this space!